The great increase of the sum thus levied 
upon the public, and its present magnitude, 
naturally suggest a doubt whether the esta- 
blished claim to this kind of relief may not 
have become, in many instances, the de- 
pendance of idleness, instead of the sup- 
port of age and helplessness. It is also pi o- 
bable, that the laws, by which the poor’s 
rate was originally established, had no rela- 
tion to the pecuniary relief of the able 
bodied labourer, and that it was only meant 
for the relief of those, who either had not 
work, or who were unable to work. In 
later years however, it has been generally 
extended to the relief of the labourer; and 
the quantity of that relief has been mea- 
sured by the high price of provisions, which 
is one of the principal causes of the great 
augmentation of the poor’s rate. 
Mr. Maithus, in his “ Essay on the Prin- 
ciple of Population,” advises the total abo- 
lition of this system of parochial relief, 
by proposing that a regulation should be 
made, declaring that no child born from 
any marriage, taking place after the expi- 
ration of a year from the date of the law, 
and that no illegitimate child, born two 
years after the same date, should ever be 
entitled to parochial assistance. To give a 
more general knowledge of this law, he 
proposes that the clergyman of the parish 
should, previously to every marriage, read a 
short address to the parties, stating the 
strong obligation on every man to support 
his own children, and the necessity, which 
had at length appeared, of abandoning all 
public institutions for their relief, as having 
produced effects totally opposite to those 
which were intended. See Population. 
POPPY, we have, under the word Pa- 
paver, given a botanical account of the 
plant ; we are now to speak of it as produc- 
tive of opium. The officinal poppy is a na- 
tive of the southern parts of Europe, but it 
is thought to have been originally from Asia, 
where it is cultivated in great abundance. 
Opium, called also opium tliebaicum, from 
its being anciently prepared chiefly at The- 
bes, has been long and highly celebrated 
as a medicine. It is imported into this 
country, and the continent of Europe, in 
flat cakes, covered with leaves to prevent 
their sticking together. It has a reddish- 
brown colour, and a strong peculiar smell. 
It is the chief narcotic now employed ; it 
acts directly upon the nervous power, di- 
minishing the irritability and mobility of 
the system. From the sedative power of 
opium, by which it allays pain, inordinate 
action, and restlessness, it is employed in 
various diseases. Besides the sedative 
power, it is known to act more or less as 
a stimulant, exciting the motion of the 
blood ; and by the conjoined effort of the 
sedative and stimulant effect, opium has 
been thought to produce intoxication, a 
quality for which it is much used in tlie east- 
ern countries. The manner in which this 
drug is collected in the east is as follows: 
w'hen the capsules are about half grown, at 
sun set, they make two longitudinal double 
incisions, passing from below upward.®, and 
taking care not to penetrate the internal 
cavity. The incisions are repeated every 
evening, until each capsule has received 
six or eight wounds ; they are then allowed 
to ripen their seeds. If the wound were 
made in the heat of the day, a cicatrix 
would be too soon formed. The night 
dews favour the distillation of the juice. 
Early in the morning old women, boys and 
girls, collect the juice by scraping it off, 
and deposit the whole in an earthen pot, 
where it is worked by the hands in the open 
sun-shine until it becomes of a considerable 
thickness. It is then formed into cakes of 
a globular shape, and of about four pounds 
each in weight, and laid into little earthen 
vessels to be further dried. They are then 
covered over with poppy or tobacco leaves, 
and thus dried they are fit for sale. 
From a variety of experiments made on 
a large scale, it is found that opium may 
be obtained from the poppy cultivated in 
this country, which in colour, consistence, 
taste, &c. is, in every respect, as good as 
that which is imported from foreign parts. 
It is thus procured : when the leaves die 
away and drop off, the capsules, being then 
in a green state, are cut in slits about an 
inch long, on one side of the head only : 
immediately on the incision being made, a 
milky fluid will issue out, which being of a 
glutinous nature, will adhere to the bottom 
of the incision ; but some are so luxuriant, 
that it will di’op from the head. The next 
day, if the w’eather should be fine, the 
opium will be of a greyish substance, and 
then may be scraped off with the edge of 
a knife, and in a day or two it will be of a 
proper consistence to make into a mass, and 
to be put in pots. The white poppy is 
commonly considered as the officinal plant, 
but any of the varieties may be employed 
indiscriminately, since no difference is dis- 
covered in their sensible qualities or effects. 
The heads or capsules being boiled in 
water, impart a narcotic juice. The liquor 
